Gowan revisits 1980s hits at solo shows

CTV Windsor: Gowan revisits 80s hits After four decades in the music industry, Lawrence Gowan says he knows what fans want to hear. Melanie Borrelli reports.

After four decades in the music industry, Lawrence Gowan knows what his fans want to hear.

"The first thing we're going to do it revisit the 80's that's number one because that's when people got to know some of my music," said Gowan in a phone interview with CTV News.

The Scottish-born Canadian Rock n' Roll Hall of Famer has six Canadian Top-10 songs, two Juno Awards and four Platinum albums.

"We're going to play a number of songs from “Strange Animal”, including that song, and "A Criminal Mind," "Cosmetics” and then move on to the next big album in the 80's was in 1987 and that was "Great Dirty Wolf," he says.

Gowan only does a few solo shows a year, but he performs up to 100 gigs a year as the lead singer of the band Styx.

"People have been hearing me do Styx songs for the past 20 years, so they really want to hear material from the Gowan years so that's what we focus on," says Gowan.

Despite being a veteran in the music industry, Gowan says he's reluctant to give advice to young artists, but he does give a few words of wisdom.

"Fall in love with music to the point where it just enriches your life,” he says. “Whether you make it or don't make it, however you want to qualify that, it's really immaterial."

Other than that, Gowan says he actually gets advice from them.

"Am I using this social media thing properly? Is this the best way to send the song out? I mean they've discovered a whole different way of approaching how to put music out," says Gowan.

Gowan says being from the 1980s and being so centered on making videos has helped with the transition to digital and social media.

"I have lots of materials to draw from to put online and to share with people and they can look back at my mullet days and make all kinds of sassy comments."

Gowan hits the Colosseum stage at Caesars Windsor Friday at 9 p.m.